Lulu arrived at the hospital and was immediately led into the doctor’s office.

“What happened Dr Lopez?”

‘Oh Mrs Moore…”

“Please call me miss Bridge from now.”

“There’s been an horrible mistake, I promise nothing like this has never happened in the history of our hospital.”

Lulu pulled out a chair across from her, "Well tell me what happened.”

“Before insemination, the nurse in charged of your ivf had found out that your husband had no living sperm cells, your infertility issue was from your husband.”

“What?!” Lulu threw her hands over her mouth in astonishment, that meant there was no way Emery was actually pregnant with Alex's child. She was lying to him!

"Wait, so how come my pregnancy was successful?"

"That's the problem, one of our hospital's biggest client was also scheduled for an insemination on that same day, the samples were swapped."

"Wait, so what you're saying is... I'm pregnant with someone else's child?"

"Not just anyone, David Carlson's child."

"Am I supposed to know who that is?"

"He's the world's most famous artist, how haven't you heard of him?"

"That's not important! How could you have made such a terrible mistake?!"

"We know, and we are trying to fix it which is why we thought to let you know first."

The door barged open and a crying nurse walked into the doctor's office.

"Dr Lopez, my life is over, what do I do?! my career! all of my hard work."

Lulu recognised her as the nurse who had been in charge of her case.

She broke down in more tears, "I heard he's on his way," she was trembling.

"Today is his appointment, he's supposed to meet with the surrogate today..."

Lulu could not understand the big deal about this man and why everyone seemed to be so worried. Yes it was a disaster but there had to be a solution.

"Relax, we will find a way around things..."

"No you don't understand!" The nurse sobbed, "all my years of hard work are gone and I'll be going to jail soon."

The nurse suddenly fell before Lulu and went on her knees, holding Lulu's arms, "please miss could you act like you were the scheduled surrogate? he has no idea yet and..."

"We will not be doing anything of such!" Doctor Lopez immediately interjected, "we are already in a big problem if he finds out about this incident, let alone lying to him would put the hospital in further issues."

The nurse buried her face in her hands, "I'm so dead."

"We can just talk to him..." Lulu wondered how they could treat one person like he was a god.

"You don't understand, David Carlson is the world's craziest man!" The nurse sniffed.

"He once closed down an entire supermarket because they sold him an expired product, it was only expired for a day!"

"He also closed down a hundred million dollar movie production because they were filming outside his apartment," Dr Lopez backed her up.

"He hates being associated with people," the nurse sniffed, "he hates the sound of animals, of humans of anything at all."

"He fired his staff for breathing too loudly, he's barely ever seen in public almost like he's allergic to humans."

"What do I do Dr Lopez?" The nurse continued to cry. "my life is over, the hospital is done for."

One of the other staff walked in and reported, "he's here..."

The three women went dead quiet as they heard the sound of his footsteps.

With every passing second, the women held their breath. Their fates would be decided in a matter of minutes.

The door came open, a tall man clad in a suit walked in.

Lulu had never met such a charming man, he had bright blue eyes, long wavy jet black hair and juicy pink lips, his jaw looked like they had been chiseled to perfection.

His eyes flickered to hers, pulling her out of her trance. Her eyes lingered on his gaze, he had a stern and blank expression. She looked away and swallowed hard.

"I heard you needed to see me," he turned his gaze to Dr Lopez, his voice was deep and was filled with so much dominance.

"Yes in fact, we needed to tell you something about the insemination," dr Lopez was doing her best to be professional.

"There's been a..." she began to say when Lulu interrupted.

"It was successful, I'm the surrogate, it's nice to meet you Mr Carlson," she extended her hand out for a shake.

MEETING MR CARLSON

He stared at Lulu's hands with disgust, "is this really why you called me here? You couldn't talk to my assistant?" He flickered his eyes back to Dr Lopez.

"Good it was successful, my assistant will be here with the contract papers."

He turned around to leave on his heels, glowering at Lulu before taking his leave

"What did you just do?" Dr Lopez widened her eyes at Lulu.

"I don't know, I just didn't think you deserved to be in trouble with such a man, I'm still in shock myself but..."

"No you don't understand what you've gotten yourself into, the type of surrogacy we were going to do with him was completely different," she seemed panicked.

"What do you mean?"

"The surrogate is supposed to live with him throughout the pregnancy, with immediate effect."

"I'm sorry, what?!"

"Yes Miss Bridge, he doesn't think anyone would be able to take care of the child's health other than him, and... I was going to tell him the insemination was unsuccessful and-"

"Holy shit, I just didn't know what to do in that time."

"There's so much you need to learn if you want to be a surrogate, so much rules."

"But it's a good thing too," the nurse sniffed, feeling better now knowing her head wouldn't be ripped off. "The pay from Mr Carlson is three hundred thousand dollars!"

Lulu widened her eyes in shock, "what?!"

"Yes, this is why we cannot afford to mess things up."

"I'll do it," Lulu said without thinking.

All her life she had dreamed of being a mother and she had no money left after the IVF with nowhere to go.

"But you need to know you'll have no association with this child forever."

She swallowed hard, "that's the thing about being a surrogate! You're supposed to have no association with the child, it's in the contract, and he even has his own contract terms."

"I... I need some time to think about it."

"Fine, this needs to be extremely confidential, how will we explain things to your husband now?"

She frowned at the mention of Alex.

"He means nothing to me anymore."

Lulu wasn't sure what she had gotten herself into.

Dr Lopez escorted her out, waving her off once she was out of sight.

*

Lulu got home, reminded of her misery with her husband.

She pulled out the home computer, she typed David Carlson's name into the search bar.

Hot pictures of the man came flooding her page.

Fuck he was the sexiest thing to ever exist, he had so many art works displayed, yet he wasn't smiling in a single picture.

She shook her head, this was not the time to be admiring him.

She flinched when she heard her front door unlock.

Her eyes were shifted into a frown when she saw her husband walk in with Emery entangled by his arm.

"It's not enough that you disturbed and shamed me, how can you still come back here?!" She raised her voice.

"She will move in with me, this is my house bought with my own money!" Alex said.

"What do you mean? I pay rent always, I even sold the necklace I inherited from my late grandmother to keep up with the rent!"

"Well, all that money came to me," he confessed, "I own this house and many more, and the documents are in my drawer as proof."

Lulu stood there in shock.

"Now that you know the truth, there's no need to hide things anymore."

He turned to her ex best friend with a smile,"Emery will be moving in with me."

"What?!"

"Yes, I'm kicking you out."

Her eyes welled with tears. Was this really the same man who had shown her unconditional love for the past four years.

He tossed some papers at her, "these are signed divorce papers, go ahead and sign them, pack your crap and move out."

"Alex!"

"There's no way Emery can live in that small shack of hers anymore, it's not good for the child."

"Alex, how can you do this..."

He left Emery's side, taking Lulu's arms like she was a piece of trash, he pulled her into their shared bedroom and began to toss all of her clothing out.

He pushed her out of the room with a box of her few clothes.

"I expect you to send the divorce letter back as soon as possible!"

She held her box with shaky hands and turned to Emery, "you'll regret this!"

Emery put on a smirk, "that's easy for you to say, Alex loves me."

"He loved me too..."

"That's different! You couldn't bear him a child, I did."

Lulu stood there in amusement, "well then let's see how easily he throws you out when the truth comes out."

Lulu watched as Emery's eyes widened in shock.

Alex wasted no time in throwing Lulu out, not giving her a chance to do more.

Lulu stared at the divorce papers in her hands, she sniffed and pulled her phone out to call Dr Lopez.

"Hello?" came her doctor's sleepy voice.

"I need to move in with David Carlson, tonight."

WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE

"Why what's happened?" Doctor Lopez sounded panicked.

"I've been thrown out of my house with no where to go."

"Oh my goodness! The child needs to be safe at all times, let me know where you are I'll send a driver over to you."

In a matter of minutes, there was a small car there to pick her up. "Are you miss bridge?" He asked.

Picking her box, she nodded. She didn't even have the energy to cry from how bad her husband was treating her because it was yet to sink in.

The driver pulled up in a hotel and helped her with booking everything.

*

The next day dr Lopez showed up at the hotel.

"The move is happening today, he has scheduled everything for today so we don't have much time left."

Doctor Lopez announcement made Lulu realise how this was reality.

Lulu had no one to call, her only family had been Alex and her best friend Emery.

"I'm so sorry with how quickly everything is happening," doctor Lopez said with a sigh.

"It's okay," Lulu tried to show no hints of nervousness.

“This is the contract and all you need to know about surrogacy.”

"What's the contract for?"

"Because Mr Carlson wanted this to happen in a very specific way, these are his personal rules you must follow."

"May I ask why he wants a surrogate? Does he have a wife?"

"No Mr Carlson had never been interested in relationships so it's a surprise why he wants a child."

"Since I'm signing things," she pulled out her divorce paper from her box, "might as well get this over with."

She signed the divorce papers, "I'll get them mailed to him."

"Is this because of Mr Carlson?" Dr Lopez sounded genuinely worried.

"No we didn't separate due to that, he has no idea and I'm hoping to keep it that way."

Dr Lopez's phone rang all of a sudden.

She put it up to her ear.

"Hello? Okay thank you for letting me know."

"What's wrong?" Lulu wondered.

"It's time."

Lulu swallowed hard, maybe this was being too hasty of a decision.

Lulu got to her feet, she put on a simple white dress, and drew her hair back in a simple bun.

She didn't understand why she cared about how she looked right now . She headed out of the hotel room with Dr Lopez.

There was a Porsche parked outside the hotel waiting for them.

The driver took her box and placed it in the trunk of the vehicle.

He opened the back door seat for her and turned to Dr Lopez, "I'll take it from here."

Lulu stared at Dr Lopez who was trying her best to hide how nervous she seemed.

She waved her goodbye until she was out of sight.

This was it. She was moving into the devil's den, her life was about to be changed by David Carlson forever.

*

Lulu had thought David Carlson's house would be unreal but seeing it in reality, she wondered how one person could be so rich.

The driver pressed the bell, after going through the security at the gate.

A flood of workers were staring back at her with wide smiles.

"Welcome miss," a middle aged woman smiled at her, taking her bags from the driver. “I'm Millet.”

Lulu's eyes followed through the crowd of them and realised she was unconsciously searching for David.

"Oh sir is not here," Millet confirmed as if she read her mind.

"Follow me, I'll take you to your room."

Lulu followed after her.

She noticed all sorts of paintings hanging on the white walls, it must be his art, she thought.

Her room was upstairs, one of many doors facing each other.

Is this a house or a hotel room?

Her bedroom was three times the size of her old one.

It was simple with one bed in the center of the room, but no other decorations.

"If you need anything, press the bell by your bed. I'll leave you to yourself now."

Lulu watched as the woman left the room, she was all alone once more.

She sat on the bed, and buried her face in her hands, this was happening too quickly.

She put her shaky hands to her belly, "what am I doing? All I wanted for years was a baby, I can't give my child up so easily, I'll convince David Carlson to let me keep the baby too, it's only fair."

She didn't really want to be here but she had nowhere to go for now.

"I should read the contract."

Her eyes widened the more she glanced through the pages, "this is insane, how do you expect anyone to live like this?! Must not be in contact, always maintain six feet, do not talk to him unless he talks first, do not leave house unsupervised? These are not proper rules, this is prison, no wonder he pays so much."

She put the overwhelming contract beside her, "he'll have to do things that I need too, especially being in the child's life."

She looked around, it would be very luxurious to have all of this for her child, her baby would grow up well.

Her phone dinged.

It was a picture of Emery and Alex kissing. Emery had sent it. In fact, she had a huge diamond ring engraved on her finger.

Was Alex that wealthy? They always struggled with finances and now he could afford a diamond ring for Emery?

Why did he pretend to be a poor man and only make her suffer this whole time

The image was immediately followed by a fake apology, "oops, I meant to send that to someone else."

She immediately blocked the phone number.

She closed her eyes and fell into the arms of sleep.

*

Lulu woke up hours later, her eyes flickering to the wall clock.

"It's already past ten p.m, how did I sleep so much?"

Her stomach grumbled, reminding her she hadn't eaten at all.

She looked at the bell she was ordered to ring and felt bad to think of calling a chef.

It wasn't like her to order anyone around, it would also be selfish to wake someone who was already sleeping.

Surely, it's not so hard to find the kitchen in this giant castle.

She headed out of the room, all bright lights had been turned off, leaving only the dim night light.

She shuffled downstairs and found the massive kitchen next to the living room.

She returned to her bedroom after making the sandwich.

She found the bathroom door through her dark room and headed in there.

"Wow," she was truly amazed. Why did they give her such a grand bathroom.

The walls were gold with sculptures all over the room.

She marveled at the huge window by the bath tub that had a view of the mountain in the distance.

"He's surely treating me grandly."

She took all of her clothes off, hanging them on a hanger by the sink and filled the golden rimmed tub with hot water.

No sooner had she sunk her head into the tub did she hear the bathroom door swing open.

Reflexively, she wrapped her arms around herself, letting out an alarming scream as she swung her eyes to the intruder.

No other than David Carlson standing there, stark naked.

With fear in her heart, she widened her eyes at the gigantic man.

"What are you doing here?" They asked at the same time.